I’m not sure who followed who on Twitter, but Frances-Frances has the least Twitter or Facebook followers I’ve seen for a legitimately good band (They can be found on Twitter via https://twitter.com/FRNCS_FRNCS or Twitter handle @FRNCS_FRNCS).

Their Twitter page says Glitz ‘n’ Blitz | Glam/Post-Punk from South London. To me, it’s straight up fun alternativ-ey British rock. There is something about these guys, I can’t put my finger on it but it was fun listening to all of the tracks on their Bandcamp page.

With Rise Against’s June 2017 release of “Wolves”, I decided now was the time to do a mini deep dive on their back catalog. Armed with google searches and a couple of reddit boards, I came up the playlist below.

By no means am I a superfan, so feedback and requests are welcome through Twitter (@chiswick_radio).

I will keep this very brief. I did a deep dive of the Strokes catalog on Spotify, and pulled the songs that I thought merited being on this Stokes playlist (I like to call it a “digital box set”).

Admittedly, this list is weighed heavy on the first album “This Is It”—- as almost every song appears on it. I’m sure I will get it from someone for the two songs I left off (and don’t get me started on “New York City Cops”) .

But there is some balance here with songs from every album, including an independent single and the recent EP.

The Strokes have been a great band, the last 15 years. The only issue was their first album will be the most highly regarded fom now until eternity—there was no rising action—we were at the top of the mountain from the beginning. But, the entire catalog is definitely worth going through a few times.

If you follow your favorite band’s history, there’s usually a height it reaches artistically before a decline or plateau. In some cases, the music that is produced after their peak is unbearable to listen to. I’m not a hater so won’t name names, I’d rather just walk away from it (or run) and not speak ill. But you can probably find a few bands you used to love who fall under this category.

Another flavor is the band that will be remembered for a certain height, like what I mentioned above. After that height, though, they continue to produce music that, while it won’t be on the short list of your all time faves, create that distinct sound and artistry that you crave and welcome when you hear it.

Which brings me to Dear World, by Nine Inch Nails. I’m by no means a hardcore fan of NIN, but I’ve listened enough of them over the last oh god, I don’t know how many years, oh let’s stop there.

Dear World sounds like a distinct Nine Inch Nails song with the instrumentation and Trent Reznor vocals. We are not breaking new ground here, neither will it be in the retrospective video when they gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (shouldn’t NIN be in already)?

I’ll keep it brief, listen to it below, and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Enjoy.

We kind of went off-roading this week on various tracks. Our love for hockey (Fluxland), new stuff, (Empire of the Sun, Beach Slang, Against Me!) classic stuff (Elton John, AC/DC, Run-DMC), a mini-deep dive on Urge Overkill, sampled music and other stuff. Enjoy and remember we keep all the playlists here:(http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4d) which are at 150 songs and counting. You can also follow us on Spotify (chiswickradio) and access all our playllsts.

Every week, Spotify creates a playlist for it’s listeners based on it’s listening habits. In other words, it’s trying to figure out our musical algorithm. For a while it had been serving me up a lot of retro sounding songs, so when Babe Ruth’s “The Mexican” came up, I figured it was another newish song paying tribute to the good ol’ days.

There were some hints in here that the song was older though, the 70’s style progressive guitar work and the sound of a keyboard that didn’t sound retro, just old. But it had a lot of funky elements to it, like the bass line, the beat and even the vocals that sounded like something you would hear today.

After hearing it 2-3 times, I finally looked it up. The song is almost 45 years old and I’m wondering how it got by my radar all this time.

Not only that, but the song has been covered and sampled many times in dance and hip hop music, including Wu-Tang Clan, N.E.R.D, and even the metal band Helloween (I think I had to list this one because that is a great retro name for a metal band).

Wikipedia even says that a portion of “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa uses it, but it doesn’t seem material after listening to it for the umpteenth time. Here is a writeup on the song and those who have used it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mexican_%28song%29

The Mexican is getting at least weekly play on one of our playlists and it is a nice changeup you can throw in with a batch of music.